Subscribe now

If you know someone with kids in the Worcester Public Schools or who works there or just likes in depth school coverage, help us get the word out!

Share

Don’t forget to tip your writers, too.

Give Aislinn a tip!

Thanks a million. —Bill

Busy week, with a school committee meeting and two standing committee meetings. 

Here’s the preview:

November 21 School Committee Meeting.
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for November 21 at 5 p.m. There is no executive session. See the full agenda here. You can watch live via Zoom or stream it on WEA-TV’s YouTube channel. Spanish translation is available on Zoom.

Report of the Superintendent. 

This meeting’s report is an update on “Sense of Belonging” and will cover climate, culture, and safety.

Boundary changes for schools.
For over a year Superintendent Monárrez and Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen have spoken at both school committee and standing committee meetings about the need for redistricting school boundaries. Finally, there is an item on the agenda requesting the school committee “consider possible revisions to school boundary assignments.” According to the district report  WPS has not comprehensively reviewed boundary changes in decades and enrollment trends have changed a lot in that time. According to the proposed timeline from the district, recommendations would be made in the 2025-2026 school year to allow for public hearings, and implementation would happen in the 2026-2027 school year (when current kindergartners are starting second grade). You can see the boundaries as they currently stand using this great Worcester Regional Research Bureau tool. 

We can assume there will be heated debate and a lot of emotion from the community as new boundary lines get proposed. Neighborhood schools are culturally entrenched in Worcester, and it’s a model that I don’t imagine will change anytime soon. But it exacerbates socioeconomic segregation in our city. As an example, 42 percent of WPS elementary schools have 82 percent or more low income students, with a median of 87 percent. On the other hand, just 27 percent have 60 percent or less low income students, with a median of 47 percent. Last school year the district was 71 percent low-income, well above and the statewide 42 percent. Low income status in Massachusetts is determined by the percentage of families at 185 percent of the federal poverty level, which for 2023 was $55,500 for a family of four.

Paid Leave Reports.
Alex Guardiola (district D) has requested a group of reports around employee leave.

Other bits and bobs.

• Molly McCullough (district A) has an item to consider flag football as a girls varsity sport.

• Up for approval are two donations to fund the new Tufts at Tech Community Veterinary Clinic at Worcester Tech: one for $500,000 from Tufts and the other for $2.5 million donation from the Alden Trust

November 18 Finance, Operations, and Governance Standing Committee.

The Finance, Operations and Governance (FOG) Standing Committee meets on November 18th at 5 p.m. at the Durkin Administration Building. Here’s the agenda. Two items worth noting:

First Quarter Budget Review.

One important role of the school committee is financial oversight, and the ins and outs of those conversations mostly happen at FOG. This meeting they’ll review the first quarter budget report. Here are some highlights:

• The state budget was finalized in August, with an increase in $61,501 for Worcester. The administration is recommending that it go to the health insurance account.

• Deficits, or account lines that have had more spending than was budgeted for, include administrative salaries, school nurse salaries, health insurance, paraprofessional salaries, and unemployment compensation.

• Balances, or account lines that have had less spending than was budgeted for, include supplemental program salaries, maintenance salaries, and instructional materials. 

• In a continued trend over the last few years, requests for McKinney Vento transportation for homeless students is increasing—with 132 NEW requests this school year—and it is expensive for the district as they have to contract out for some of the drivers. Another example of how high housing costs don’t just impact individuals, but costs our city budget too.

Bus Tracking Update.
There have been district-wide complaints about the bus tracking app, MyStop, not working well since last school year (the first year of implementation in 2022-2023 it was much better!) There is an update from the district on the issues and how they are working to resolve them.

November 19 Teaching, Learning, and Student Success Standing Committee.

The Teaching, Learning, and Student Success (TLSS) standing committee meets on November 19 at 5pm at the Durkin Administration Building. There are two items on the agenda, one on the number of homeschooled students living in Worcester, and the other an update on the Doherty Biomedical program. TLSS is chaired by Alex Guardiola (district D) and other members include Vanessa Alvarex (district B), Maureen Binienda (at-large), and Sue Mailman (at-large).

Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Share

This outlet is 100 percent reader funded. Please help out if you can!

Subscribe now

Share Worcester Sucks and I Love It

Merch Store

Subscribe now

It consists of one monthly recap post and short agenda previews like the one below. A paid subscription helps keep this crucial coverage of the public schools coming when legacy outlets are investing less and less in school coverage. 

Don’t forget to tip your writers, folks.

Give Aislinn a tip!

Thank you! -Bill

Hope you all had a nice October. It was nice for me to take a break from this newsletter, but I’m glad to be back. The school committee meeting schedule is a little off this month due to the rescheduling of the November 7th meeting and Thanksgiving. So there will be two back-to-back meetings in November, on the 14th and the 21st. 

Let’s get to the preview:

November 14th School Committee Meeting
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for November 14 with executive session starting at 5 p.m. and the general meeting scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session lasts. See the full agenda here. You can no longer watch the meeting on Facebook live, but you can watch it via Zoom or stream it on WEA-TV. Spanish translation is available on Zoom. A reminder that remote participation is a courtesy, and that the meeting will continue even if there are issues with the virtual broadcast. If there’s something you really want to speak on or listen in on, in-person is always the most reliable bet. 

And another administrative note that despite the online calendar showing a 6 p.m. start for all school committee meetings, there’s only been two meetings this calendar year that have had scheduled 6 p.m. starts—the other 18 have started earlier. It’s always good practice to assume an earlier start if you’re planning ahead. As the clerk points out on the website, meeting times can change with just 48 hour notice.

Report of the Superintendent. 

This meeting’s report is an update on “literacy success” and the new elementary school language arts curriculum, CKLA Amplify. (I’m still working on my literacy project…hoping I will have something for you all to read soon!)

Notification of personnel records.
On every agenda there is an item around personnel, which lists who was hired and who retired/resigned/was not renewed. Over the last month, there have been five speech pathologists who resigned. I’m curious what’s going on there, although I suspect it has to do with high caseload numbers. Among special education teachers, speech pathologists are in high demand across many sectors (healthcare, private practice, residential care) and so they have a job mobility that other special education teachers do not. This attrition could be a bellwether of continued issues in Special Education. 

Running out of lunches.
The student advisory committee has an item on the agenda to address schools running out of school lunches—a huge compliment to the new menu—but an issue that needs to be addressed nonetheless. I assume this is happening at the secondary level, because I’d be surprised if elementary students can eat two lunches in the 15 minutes they have allotted to eat… but I could be wrong.

Bargaining units.
Last school committee meeting Member Alex Guardiola (district D), requested a list of all bargaining units in WPS. In this interesting explanation (which he appeared to be reading) he said “as we prepare for next year’s budget it’s essential to acknowledge our duty to the taxpayers of Worcester. Our community entrusts us with their resources and it is our responsibility to ensure that every dollar is spent wisely and effectively.” It seems that Guardiola is implying that unionized WPS employees are not a wise or effective use of money. A reminder that Worcester taxpayers via the City of Worcester only provide 25% of the general operating budget for WPS. The other 75% comes from the state/federal government. Anyway, here’s the list Guardiola requested.

Other bits and bobs.

• There is a public petition from Frederick Rushton asking that the district incorporate pickleball into afterschool programming. 

• Member Jermaine Johnson (district F) has an item to address vaping in schools. Last session he also had an item on vaping, and the district looked into vaping detectors for the bathrooms, but determined they were too expensive and ineffective. Member Kathi Roy (district E) also has an item asking for information on drug and intervention programs provided to students.

• Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) has an item requesting a teaching/learning plan for the 14 schools selected by DESE as needing intervention/improvement.

• Member Kathi Roy (district E) has a request to provide transportation for secondary students who wish to stay after school, but don’t have transportation home. As it stands currently, the entire after-school transportation budget goes to secondary students. The district did not budget any money for elementary students for late buses home (and elementary students are generally too young to take WRTA on their own).

Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Share

Don’t forget to tip your writers, folks.

Give Aislinn a tip!

And please consider a paid subscription to Worcester Sucks so we can keep providing crucial local journalism like this.

Subscribe now

September 19th School Committee Meeting

Sorry this is arriving in your inbox less than two days before the meeting! According to a new message on the school committee website, the agendas will now be posted 48 hours before the meeting (on Tuesdays) rather than six days before (on Fridays), as has been the custom. It’s a little odd, because per school committee rules the agenda has to be compiled a full week before the meeting—something can only be added after that deadline if the mayor “determines an item is time sensitive.” All this to say, if the agenda is basically settled a week before the meeting it’s not clear why it’s not being shared with the public then. Of course it can change up to 48 hours before, per open meeting laws, but rarely has an agenda changed drastically from when it was initially posted. Only 48 hours notice definitely makes it more challenging for the community to engage. I hope whoever made that decision reconsiders.

That said, let’s get to the preview:

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for September 19 at 5:30 p.m. There is no executive session, so the general meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. See the full agenda here. You can no longer watch the meeting on Facebook live, but you can watch it via Zoom or stream it. Spanish translation is available on Zoom. Always a good reminder that remote participation is a courtesy, and that the meeting will continue even if there are issues with the virtual broadcast. So if there’s something you really want to speak on or listen in on, in-person is always the most reliable bet. 

Report of the Superintendent. 

This meeting’s report is on the superintendent’s proposed goals for the 2024-2025 school year. If you attended the Citywide Parent Planning Advisory Council (CPPAC) last week, Dr. Monárrez presented these proposed goals at that meeting. As you might remember from last month’s brief, the superintendent’s goals are approved by the school committee and are a significant part of her yearly evaluation.  

Speaking time limit.

Member Sue Mailman (at-large) is requesting the committee consider a speaking time limit of five minutes, with an additional five minutes allowed with approval from the chair. The issue of school committee members speaking at length is definitely not new to this committee. Consistently over the years, members without time limits have meant unnecessarily long meetings. Case in point is the school committee general meeting on September 5, where Member Dianna Biancheria had three instances of speaking for over 10 minutes. If every member did that, meetings would last almost five hours. 

Burncoat Vocational Programs, Alternative High School Naming, Grants.

• As part of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) process for building a new Burncoat, the district must present vocational programs for the feasibility study. Further along in the process these will be refined, but putting these in the feasibility study means that Burncoat, which does not currently have vocational programs, will most likely have them in the future.

• Up for approval is naming the creative arts classes wing of the Worcester Alternative High School after Dr. Mike O'Neil, “recognizing his extraordinary dedication to the students and the arts.”

• A $210,000 grant from the state for a M-Th after school program for 50 Vernon Hill students that will focus on academics and enrichment.

• A $56,000 grant from the state for civics education that will go towards an Investigating Curriculum for grade 5 students and the Discovering Justice curriculum for K-2.

Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Aislinn has written these for months now, but, out of fear of spamming our readers with too many emails, we’ve have kept them on a much smaller “opt-in” email list.

These previews are valuable and succinct pieces of local journalism, and I think more people should know about them! So I want to try an “opt out” model instead: if you don’t want it in your inbox, you can adjust your settings. Under the “notifications” section, you can untoggle it (or any other section you don’t care for) and you won’t get the emails anymore! Voila!

Let me know if you think this is a good/bad change. It’s a difficult balance between “are we sending too many emails?” and “why wouldn’t we put our good work in front of the biggest audience possible?”

Leave a comment

Anyway—please consider a paid subscription to Worcester Sucks so we can keep providing crucial local journalism like this.

Subscribe now

And if you know someone who would appreciate this reporting, like maybe say a parent of a new WPS student, share the post with them!

Share

And don’t forget to tip your writers folks.

Give Aislinn a tip!

Thank you! Now onto Aislinn’s preview. -Bill

September 5th School Committee Meeting

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for September 5 at 5:30 p.m. Executive session starts at 5 p.m. and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session lasts. See the full agenda here. You can watch it via Zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on Zoom.

Here’s my preview:

Report of the Superintendent.

At most school committee meetings there is a report on a topic, called the Report of the Superintendent, although more often than not the Superintendent isn’t the one actually giving the presentation. (Here’s the topic schedule for the 24-25 school year.) This meeting’s report is on the start of the school year, and based on the backup document, will provide an overview of some organizational processes, an update on safety enhancements, and an update on preliminary student enrollment and BIPOC hiring. 

An enrollment slide from the presentation (above) indicates that initial enrollments are higher than last year, especially at the kindergarten level. That increase had been predicted by the budget office, which uses 80 percent of a given year’s birth rate in Worcester to predict how many kindergartners there will be, see chart below from the FY 2024 budget presentation.

Last year’s entering kindergarten class was 51 students less than projected, but so far this year’s kindergarten class is 22 more than projected. And just a reminder that Worcester receives funding from the state based on how many students are enrolled on October 1 of the previous school year. Being able to accurately predict enrollment helps the district plan strategically for future budgets. 

School Liaison Officer (SLO) MOU replaced with an “Operating Agreement”

In response to an item from Member Dianna Biancheria (district C) to request a report on the status of the SLO program, the administration writes that the SLO MOU has been replaced with an “Operating Agreement” and that “The elements of the operating agreement continue the collaboration between the WPS and WPD, continue communication protocols between the WPS and WPD, and establish a police scholar engagement program (for sixth-grade students).”

Report on Credit-Shy Students Walking at Graduation.

Back at the January 28 school committee meeting the committee passed an item that allowed students to walk with their class at graduation if they were two credits shy of the 24 credits needed to get their diploma. Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) was the lone vote against that policy and she filed for reconsideration of it for the Feb. 1 meeting, which failed. She then requested a report to see how many students were allowed to walk and how many actually completed their credits. 

According to the response from Assistant Superintendent Dr. Marie Morse, there were 23 students allowed to walk at graduation, which is a little over 1% of enrolled 12th graders last year. Fourteen of those students were at North, 1 at the Gerald Creamer Center, 4 at South, 3 at University Park, and 1 at Worcester Tech. Of the 23 who were allowed to walk, just one student from University Park did not complete their credits by July 30.

School Naming, MCAS, Safety, and Recognitions.

• The item to name the alternative school after Dr. Mike O’Neil is back on the agenda. It was initially proposed in 2023 by previous school committee member Laura Clancey.

• The EAW, the educators’ union, has a public petition requesting the committee to pass a resolution to replace the MCAS as a graduation requirement

• Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) has an item requesting “a report on additional funding needed, if any, to provide safety measures, new or additional, in the Worcester Public Library branches located inside Worcester Public Schools buildings.”

• Member Kathi Roy (district E) has an item requesting “that the Administration have Worcester Public Schools provide vehicular and pedestrian safety education to students K-12.

• Member Sue Mailman (at-large) has a request to better schedule recognitions that happen at school committee meetings. From January-April of this year there were 21 recognition requests.

Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Share

Give Aislinn a tip!

Subscribe now

Give Aislinn a tip!

And please consider a paid subscription to Worcester Sucks so we can keep providing crucial local journalism like this.

Subscribe now

August 15th School Committee Meeting

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for August 15 at 4 p.m. (there is no executive session). See the full agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. Currently, there are no standing committee meetings scheduled for August.

Here’s my preview:

Superintendent’s Evaluation. The committee will evaluate the Superintendent, which is a requirement of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Like all other educators, Superintendents earn one of four ratings: Exemplary, Proficient, Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory. According to DESE, “Most effective educators will be rated Proficient on a Standard rather than Exemplary because Exemplary is reserved for educators – superintendents included – whose practice in a particular area is so strong that it can be a model for others.” Each school committee member fills out a form that evaluates Dr. Monárrez on how well she achieved her goals, and on four standards: instructional leadership, management & operations, family & community engagement, and professional culture. The chairman (Mayor Joe Petty) then takes all the evaluations and creates a summative report based on individual ratings. That summative report is what the committee votes to adopt (or not). There are no backup documents for this yet, but I will update when there are. Here’s the backup.

At the last school committee meeting there was 30 minutes of public comment in support of the superintendent, and there was recently a letter to the editor of the Telegram, signed by 31 community members, commending Dr. Monárrez’s leadership.  While evaluations from school committee members have already been submitted, it doesn’t hurt to email your school committee members and let them know how you think Superintendent Monárrez is doing and how her superintendency has impacted your kids’ experience and/or your experience in the classroom. Monárrez’s contract currently runs through June 2027, so unless it gets extended, this middle of this school year is the half-way point of her tenure.

Public Petition. There are two petitions from Gordon Davis: one about making socioeconomic demographics a required consideration as part of the facilities master plan, and the other is to request the Chandler Elementary Community School building be replaced. Chandler Elementary (not to be confused with Chandler Magnet, which happens very often) has been overcrowded and up until this school year the district leased classroom space at the YMCA. But based on a discussion at the June 13 Finance, Operations, and Governance Subcommittee meeting, the next school most likely to be submitted for replacement through the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) will be Worcester East Middle. According to Brian Allen, the earliest East Middle would likely be completed is 2038–when current four year olds are graduating from high school. 

Motions made during the budgetary discussion.  There are six reports back from the administration in response to motions made by school committee members during the budgetary discussion. Topics include wrap-around coordinators, Jr. ROTC, middle school athletics, and in-house transportation. Not much new in the content of those reports, but worth noting that bringing transportation in-house reportedly saves $5 million for the FY25 budget year.  Of that, $3 million was reinvested back into schools as specified below:

If you are unfamiliar with the context and history of in-house transportation read up here.

Donations up for approval.

The consent agenda has a slew of donations of school supplies (books, backpacks, reusable water bottles, hygiene kits) to start the school year that are up for approval.

Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Give Aislinn a tip!

Share

Give Aislinn a tip!

And please consider a paid subscription to Worcester Sucks so we can keep providing crucial local journalism like this.

Subscribe now

Share

July 18th School Committee Meeting

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for July 18 at 4 p.m. (there is no executive session). See the full agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. Currently, there are no standing committee meetings scheduled for July.

Here’s my preview:

Superintendent’s Evaluation. The Superintendent will report on her 2023-2024 school year goals, which include: 

• 100% completion of highest priority emergency projects identified in the safety audit

• narrowing the gap between overall student and staff demographics by 10% 

• increasing grade 3 reading performance demonstrated by the STAR assessment

• increasing the percentage of secondary (grades 7-12) students who self-report that they are engaged in school

You can read up on these goals in more detail in last September's brief. The committee will also evaluate the Superintendent, which is a requirement of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). So, parents, teachers, and community members, it’s that time of year to email your school committee members and let them know how you think Superintendent Monárrez is doing and how her superintendency has impacted your kids’ experience and/or your experience in the classroom. Please don’t take her leadership for granted. 

Namings. There is a request for reconsideration–reconsideration is something school committee members can do within 48 business hours of a vote–from Member Sue Mailman (at-large) on the approval of naming the basketball court at Chandler Elementary Community School after Antonio Rossi and the gym at Doherty after Officer Manny Familia. Her reasoning, which is required as part of the request, is that there needs to be school site council and/or parent and student input as required by the naming policy and it’s not clear if that happened. There is also a separate item on the agenda from Member Molly McCullough (district A) asking that the naming policy be reviewed and to provide clarity around the process. 

As a watcher of school committee meetings, and as a parent whose children’s school is going through a renaming process, I have seen a pattern over the last few years. The committee is not following the naming policy and has an inconsistent process that raises questions about why some are held to higher standards than others. Some, like the naming of the La Familia Dual Language School and the naming on the basketball court at Union Hill, were approved at the first meeting in which the item was on the agenda, with no public deliberation period despite that being required.  Others like the naming of the basketball court at Chandler Elementary and the athletic complex at South High were announced before having school committee approval. And others live in limbo, like the request from a year ago from Laura Clancey to name the alternative school after Mike O’Neil. In all of them it has not been clear at all how the school community has been included in the naming process. I believe this is not intentional–I think most of the members have never read the policy, which is a pretty good one–but by not adhering to it, it can feel that those with more political power are able to name things easily, while those without are not. Naming facilities is an inherently contentious process, which is why, I’m guessing, the majority of our schools are named after the streets they’re on. Having a solid policy and following it are critical, so that all voices of our community have equal weight. 

Grants up for approval.

• UMass Chan Medical School is offering a donation of $36,000 to fund teacher mini-grants at north quadrant classrooms. You can see the funded projects here.

• As part of the “Adopt a School Program” the Patriot’s Foundation (Kraft Sports and Entertainment) is making a donation of $25,000 to Chandler Elementary Community School, with $10,000 going to technology, $10,000 going to playground/recess equipment, and $5000 going to nutrition wellness (like their food pantry). The playground work has already been done, and as part of that the foundation asked the district to dedicate the basketball court for Antonio Rossi–the father of the developer Anthony Rossi.

• ServPro is offering an in-kind donation for Chandler Elementary Community School to do work to clean up the school like remove and replace stained ceiling tiles, treat any suspected microbial growth, paint halls and classrooms, clean walls and floors, and HVAC duct cleaning.

Innovation School Annual Reports. Up for approval are the mandatory annual reports for four innovation schools: Worcester Tech, Claremont Academy, Goddard Scholars, and University Park Campus School. Claremont Academy’s innovation plan expires this year and will not be renewed.

Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Subscribe now

Give Aislinn a tip!

Share

Subscribe now

And if you want these agenda previews in your email inboxes, you can adjust your settings here. And don’t forget to tip your writers folks.

Give Aislinn a tip!

June 20th School Committee Meeting

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for June 20. The budget session starts at 4 p.m., executive session starts at 6 p.m., and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session takes. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. 

Here’s my preview:

Budget deliberation. The final school committee deliberation of the proposed budget for the 2024-2025 school year will happen at 4 p.m. and is scheduled to last two hours.  Here’s the schedule. I’ll summarize the budget sessions at the end of the month, but as an example of how the last budget deliberation went, here’s a clip:

Just two things of note outside the budget hearing:

Public Petition from Worcester Regional Research Bureau to consider their report called Building the Future: Investing in WPS Facilities. Full disclosure, I’m a big fan of the reports coming out from WRRB lately, especially with respect to education.

Superintendent’s Evaluation. There’s an item to approve a proposed timeline for the Superintendent’s evaluation and goal setting.

Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Subscribe now

Share

And if you want these agenda previews in your inbox, go to your settings page and click the toggle next to “School Committee Agenda Previews” in the notifications box.

Consider throwing Aislinn a tip for all the great work she does for us here!

Give Aislinn a tip!

June 6 School Committee Meeting

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for June 6. The budget session starts at 4 p.m., executive session starts at 6 p.m., and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session takes. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. 

Here’s my preview:

Budget deliberation. The first school committee deliberation of the proposed budget for the 2024-2025 school year will happen at 4 p.m. and is scheduled to last two hours. Read up on the budget highlights in the May WPS in Brief.

Cell Phone Policy Reconsideration. Member Molly McCullough (district A) filed for reconsideration of the cell phone policy approved at the May 16 school committee meeting because the 5-3 vote did not meet the two-thirds needed for ammending a policy, according to school committee rules. Reconsideration is something school committee members can do within 48 (business) hours of a vote. This means that the cell phone policy reverts to the previous policy while reconsideration takes place. 

Two Namings. There is a public petition from City Councilor Khrystian King, requesting that the committee consider naming the Doherty basketball court in honor of Officer Enmanuel Familia, who died three years ago while trying to save teens from drowning. Relatedly, there is also a pending request from School Committee Member Molly McCullough (district A) to consider naming something at Doherty after fallen firefighter Jason Menard.

There is also a request from Mayor Joe Petty that the Chandler Elementary basketball court be named in memory of Antonio Rossi. According to a press release, developer Anthony Rossi donated money to help update the playspace/basketball court at Chandler Elementary. I did a cursory search of the school committee minutes for the donation amount, and could not find when the donation was approved. It is not clear if Antonio Rossi is related (I asked the district today, and will update here when I receive a response), but given the recent donation it seems likely. This is the fourth basketball court naming request this school year. 

Also on this agenda are 16(!) reports from administration. Here’s the highlights:

-Special Education 

• Student with disability data as it compares to the state

• Data by quadrant on how many students with disabilities are placed in general education classrooms and teachers assigned.

• The Director of Special Education reports that the Special Education Department is now using a Google sheet to track missed IEP minutes for students and that compensatory service sites are set up across the City to ensure students receive any missed services. If you are the caretaker of a child who receives special education services it’s not a bad idea to ask for this data of how many missed sessions your child has had. Very often special education teachers and paras miss sessions because they get pulled to substitute in classrooms or there's just literally not enough minutes in a week to see all the students on their caseload.

-Worcester East Middle window project timeline. 

-Information on remote learning

-A list of all the ways that schools offer attendance supports

-Out of school suspension risk ratio over the last seven years and reasons for suspensions.

-A comprehensive list of all the sports offered by middle school and high school.

That’s it. Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Subscribe now

And if you want these agenda previews in your inbox, go to your settings page and click the toggle next to “School Committee Agenda Previews” in the notifications box.

Aaand consider throwing Aislinn a tip for all the great work she does for us here! Her last WPS In Brief post on the budget was fantastic.

Give Aislinn a tip!

May 16 School Committee Meeting

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 16. Executive Session starts at 5 p.m. The general meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m., but actual start time depends on how long the Executive Session takes. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. (Editors note: Or you could tune into the WCT3k Twitch stream and watch it with us!)

Here’s my preview:

Grants: Two grants are up for approval. One for $6k for the Sullivan Middle School Food Pantry and one for $53k for the Doherty High School biomedical program.

Public petitions. There are two petitions from the public. One on gender support plans and one on adding bleachers to the North High Softball field.

This meeting’s Report of the Superintendent is called “Human Resources: Making Connections.”

Special Education. Member Vanessa Alvarez (district B) has two items on special education: one requesting by district the number of students with disabilities in non-sub-separate classrooms and another on what system special education has to monitor compensatory services.

Summer Programs. Member Kathi Roy (district E) is requesting that the district have a summer reading kickoff and is also requesting a report on the summer school plan.

Police. Member Dianna Biancheria (district C) is requesting an update on the status of the School Liaison Officer (SLO) model, asking for copies of all signed MOUs with the Police Chief, and requesting a job description and details of the specific plan to phase out security guards at the schools that have them.

School Name Change. There is a request from the Chandler Magnet/La Familia school community to change the school name to “La Familia on Chandler Multicultural School.” The two schools merged at the start of the school year due to the Diocese of Worcester canceling the lease for the La Familia Dual Language School.

That’s it. Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Subscribe now

And if you want these agenda previews in your inbox, go to your settings page and click the toggle next to “School Committee Agenda Previews” in the notifications box.

April 29 Finance, Operations and Governance (FOG) Standing Committee Meeting.
The next Finance, Operations and Governance meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 29 at 4:45pm at the Durkin Administration Building. There are four topics for the meeting:

• The third quarter budget report projects a deficit for the end of the school year of -$250,000.  Health insurance, out of district transportation, and out of district tuition continue to have the largest deficits. There is a new $1.5 million projected surplus in instructional materials and in the report it explains that once the district realized the deficit, they put a freeze on some accounts which “did not result in any loss of materials for students and grant sources were utilized.” The administration is proposing the following transfers:

• A proposed cell phone and airpod use policy.

• Review of the service animal policy.

• Review of the student handbook to make changes for next year.

The full agenda is here.You can watch it via zoom (the current link on the agenda isn’t working, but it should update by meeting time) or Facebook live.

May 2 School Committee Meeting.
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 2. Executive session starts at 5pm and the regular meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30pm. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom.

This meeting’s Report of the Superintendent is on “Budget Prioritization 2024-25: Prevention, Efficiencies, Coherence.”

Since there was a meeting last Thursday, there’s just 3 items on the agenda for this Thursday:

• Member Jermaine Johnson (district F) is requesting a report on the new elementary language arts curriculum, CKLA, since this is the first year of implementation.

• Member Sue Mailman (at-large) is requesting a report on the demographic data for Early College programs.

• Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) is requesting a funding and programming report for the summer credit recovery programs.

That’s it. Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Subscribe now

And if you want these agenda previews in your inbox, go to your settings page and click the toggle next to “School Committee Agenda Previews” in the notifications box.

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 25. Executive session starts at 5 p.m. and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session lasts. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. (Editors note: Or you could tune into the WCT3k Twitch stream and watch it with us!)

Here’s my preview:

This month’s Report of the Superintendent is titled “Culture and Climate Inclusivity: A Breakthrough.” The Office of Culture and Climate is a new one and focuses on “creating welcoming and inclusive environments that foster teaching and learning.” Culture and Climate is also a key priority for the district’s five year strategic plan, and based on the slide deck it looks like this presentation will address those aims. Here’s a screenshot from the slidedeck provided in the agenda: 

Based on the slides it also looks like they’ll present about suspension rates, attendance rates, student mental health surveys, and a staff engagement “pulse check.” 

Grant for Worcester East Middle window replacement. A $7 million grant from the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is up for approval. The grant will allow replacement of windows that are inoperable or at imminent failure at the school. The project will take two summers to complete. 

Electric School Bus Grant. Also up for approval is a grant for 15 new electric school buses.

Demographics of Goddard Scholars and Hanover Scholars. As requested at the last TLSS subcommittee meeting, the backup of the agenda has demographics for the Goddard Scholars and Hanover Scholars programs.  Hispanic students, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners are underrepresented in these programs, as compared to the demographics of the schools that house them.

Acceptance to special programs. Member Sue Mailman (at-large) has an item requesting demographic data for all programs that have lotteries or applications.

Voke teacher requirements. Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) has an item proposing that the teachers hired at the vocational programs at the comprehensive high schools have the same requirements as teachers for the Worcester Tech vocational programs. 

Social Media Use. Member Kathi Roy (district E) has an item requesting members refrain from phone and tablet use to text or email during meetings. 

Altercation Alerts. Member Dianna Biancheria (district C) has an item requesting that administration provide a communication when an altercation occurs in a school and to provide a summary of what occurred (It’s not clear to me if this means to the school committee or to the general public). 

That’s it. Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Subscribe now

Before I get to the agendas, I just want to touch on some conversations happening in the newspaper and on the radio around the school committee and governance. There’s a lot of rhetoric out there that is not based in fact. I wrote a twitter thread to put it all in context and I hope you’ll give it a read.  

One of the main reasons for starting WPS in Brief was to help people stay informed without being overwhelmed. We cannot have productive conversations together as a community unless we are working with accurate information.

Ok to the agendas:

April 1 Finance, Operations and Governance (FOG) Standing Committee Meeting

The next Finance, Operations and Governance meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 1 at 4:45pm at the Durkin Administration Building. There are three basic topics for the meeting:

• Facilities will go over the Quarter 3 Report. Some topics in the report include Roosevelt elementary parking plan, Worcester East MIddle windows, and ADA work for Burncoat Middle School.

• There is a response to a request by Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) for a report on rental costs.

• An item on the OPEB report.

The full agenda is here.You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live.

April 4 School Committee Meeting

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 4. There is no Executive Session, so the general meeting should start at the scheduled 5:30 p.m. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom. (Editors note: Or you could tune into the WCT3k Twitch stream and watch it with us!)

Here’s my preview:

Recognitions: There are five recognition requests on this agenda. So far this term there have been 21(!) recognition requests. For the same time period last year there were just 7. It feels like a lot. I’m not saying people should be recognized-I love lifting up our community!-but perhaps a little rethink of the why and what of school committee recognitions wouldn’t be a bad idea.

This month’s Report of the Superintendent is on Special Education. 

Budget: There’s items requesting budgetary information around grants, school choice, and Worcester East Middle. One specifically by Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) that requests to change the budget schedule to “include a report on the proposed cuts to schools and personnel due to the FY25 budget deficit at the April 25, 2024 school committee meeting or in executive session.” This budget deficit is going to require a lot of hard conversations by the school committee, so I think the committee trying to get a gauge on what the district is planning is not a bad idea, even if it needs to be done in executive session. The proposed budget is scheduled to be released until May 10. 

The Collaborative:There’s an item to approve the annual report of the Central Massachusetts Collaborative. The “Collaborative,” as it’s often referred to, is a public day school that offers 8 different programs for students. It is a collaborative of Worcester Public, Webster Public, and Oxford Public Schools and offers therapeutic day schools, an ABA based program, and alternative programs.

That’s it. Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

…and make that little grey button next to “School Committee previews” a green one. 

As always, please consider a paid subscription or a one-time tip! This newsletter is supported entirely by reader subscriptions.

Subscribe now

venmo a tip :-)

paypal a tip :-)

WORCESTER SUCKS MERCH STORE

March 21 School Committee Meeting

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 21. Executive session starts at 5 p.m. and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session lasts. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom.(Editors note: Or you could tune into the WCT3k Twitch stream and watch it with us!)

Here’s my preview:

This month’s Report of the Superintendent is on College and Career Readiness. 

School Meals and Nutrition: There is an item from Member Alex Guardiola (district D) asking for a report on school meals and nutrition. In December the Finance and Operations standing committee discussed a similar item on aligning school nutrition with student cultural and dietary needs. The nutrition department has a plan to roll out some changes, but a huge challenge is staffing. There are currently 100 unfilled positions in nutrition–or one third of the staff they need. As many people pointed out at that December meeting, it’s incredible that they have been able to maintain normal operations. And fun fact: the Assistant Director of Nutrition, Ashley Hays, was a long time executive chef who beat Bobby Flay. In her new role she is working on culinary innovation.

Safety Centers: This item about safety centers at the elementary and secondary levels was held last meeting and the administration is back with a response.

Staff Mental Health: There is a Student Advisory item requesting resources that will support educator/staff mental health.

Grants: There are a few grants up for approval, including a homeless emergency support grant for $125,000 that WPS intends to use for transportation costs for homeless students. 

Homeschooling: Member Dianna Biancheria (district C) has an item requesting a report on homeschooling, including how many Worcester kids are homeschooled, and the breakdown by grades. The most recent data out of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) says that for the 2022-2023 school year Worcester had 253 homeschooled students, which is lower than the peak of 339 during the 2020-2021 school year, but still higher than the 165 students during 2019-2020 pre-pandemic school year. If this is a topic of interest for you I highly recommend the excellent piece in the New Bedford Light about that city’s high homeschooling rate. It’s where I got the graph below that helps put Worcester’s homeschooling rate in perspective:

Student Opportunity Act Three Year Plan. Administration is asking for approval of the Student Opportunity Act Plan. The Student Opportunity Act (SOA) passed in Massachusetts in 2019 and is a gradual change of the state per-pupil funding formula over six years. It increases the amount of funding based on real costs of educating low-income students, students with disabilities, English learners, as well as costs for health insurance. We are currently in year three of implementation.  In the plan WPS says it is looking to enhance the multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and to engage teachers in professional development.

Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Trust Fund: There is an item to review the annual report of the OPEB trust fund, which is an irrevocable trust for benefits (other than pensions) that employees might receive when they retire. Think health insurance, life insurance, deferred compensation. The board that manages the trust fund is required to report to the city council and school committee every year. As of June 2023 there is a $1.2 billion unfunded liability, and increasing employee contributions continues to be a point of negotiation between the city, the school district, and some unions. 

March 20 Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports Standing Committee Meeting

(TLSS): There is a TLSS meeting on Wednesday at 5pm at the Durkin Administration Building. The full agenda is here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. There are three things on the agenda:

• Item on pre-k expansion and including “local non-profit early education and care partners.” Here’s the administrations response.

• Item on gifted programs. The backup speaks to the Goddard Scholars program at Sullivan Middle School and Hanover Insurance Academy at Burncoat Middle.  Acceptance to those programs goes to about 50 students each, and is based on STAR scores in reading and math that are above the 75th percentile. Read more here.

• Item on the modern classrooms project.

Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Subscribe now

You can sign up for the email version by going to your Worcester Sucks account page, where you’ll find this “Notifications” dashboard…

…and make that little grey button next to “School Committee previews” a green one. Voila!

As always, please consider a paid subscription or a one-time tip! This newsletter is supported entirely by reader subscriptions. I’m able to pay Aislinn to write these posts because you pay me to run this newsletter! The more paid subscribers we get, the more we’re able to do! And we just hit 700, which is very cool I think.

Subscribe now

venmo a tip :-)

paypal a tip :-)

It’s just a few bucks a month, and unlike a Telegram subscription, it doesn’t go to some media conglomerate that makes money by laying people off. Rather, it goes directly to Worcester people writing about Worcester.

Ok, that’s enough begging for today. Now to Aislinn…

March 4 Finance, Operations and Governance (FOG) Standing Committee Meeting

The next Finance, Operations and Governance meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 4 at 4:45pm at the Durkin Administration Building. There are three items on the agenda:

-An item about offering summer custodial jobs to students 16+.

-An item approving the school calendar for the next three years. The proposed calendar now includes Indigenous People’s Day alongside Columbus Day.

-And for a second time in FOG, an item to accept a donation from the Gene Haas Foundation. The administration is requesting it be filed. When this originally appeared on the agenda at the October general school committee meeting there was long debate around the ethics of accepting the donation due to the naming requirement.

The full agenda is here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live.

March 7 School Committee Meeting 

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 7. Executive session starts at 5pm and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30pm. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session lasts. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. panish translation is available on zoom.

(Editor’s note: Better yet, you can watch it with us on the Worcestery Council Theatre 3000 Twitch stream. We recently started streaming School Committee meetings on top of our regular City Council program. It’s fun!) 

Here’s my selective preview:

Burncoat Middle Renovation: Administration is asking the school committee to authorize them to submit to City Council a statement of interest to include Burncoat Middle School in the MSBA rebuild process of Burncoat High School. The rationale is that the two schools share some mechanical infrastructure and instructional programs. Administration wrote in the back up that “The determination by the city whether to combine the high school and middle school into a shared facility (but remain as two separate schools) would be determined during the feasibility study of the project. That project timeline is expected to take place between 2025-2028.”

Report of the Superintendent is an update on the Alternative Education Program. No preview of the presentation yet.  There’s also a related item that was previously held to “consider renaming St. Casimir's to The Dr. Michael O’Neil Program at the Alternative School.”

Culture and Climate Specialists: Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) asked for a report on the cost of hiring the culture and climate specialists, the number in each school, and the training provided. The culture and climate specialist positions are part of the instructional assistant collective bargaining agreement and are in the middle and high schools.

Approval of courses. There are a bunch of proposed courses for the school committee to consider, including astronomy, elementary world culture and language (this was initially approved last year so not sure what’s different here), light and sound design, introduction to medical translation, as well as some new Chapter 74 vocational programs.

Menard Naming. Member Molly McCullough (district A) is requesting that administration and the community work together to consider naming a space in the new Doherty High School building after fallen firefighter Jason Menard, who is a Doherty alum.

That’s it, have a lovely week!  If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com

Subscribe now

Thank you! Have a nice rest of your snow day.

-Bill

The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 15. Executive session starts at 5pm and the general meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30pm. Actual start time depends on how long the executive session lasts. The full agenda is here. You can watch it via zoom or Facebook live. Spanish translation is available on zoom.

Here’s my selective preview:

Report of the Superintendent will be an update on the Family and Community Engagement Framework Implementation. 

Student/Teacher Communication. The student advisory committee has an item “to consider a variety of strategies that will improve communication amongst students and teachers, which can include a suggestion box or mandatory meeting that will provide a sense of comfort and understanding in a classroom setting.” 

WPS Safety Advisory for Education (S.A.F.E) working group. The administration has come back with a response to an item asking them to create a safety advisory committee. The SAFE working group “will consist of representatives from the Administration, building principals, assistant principals, high school deans, teachers, paraeducators, support staff, EAW leadership, parents, community members and organizations, local emergency management, and students.” Those invited to join the group will be asked to commit to a two year appointment and quarterly meetings. The working group will have most of its meetings divided into two subgroups: one on Student Safety & Sense of Belonging and one on Campus Safety, Training, and Funding.

School Classroom Locks. Members Dianna Biancheria (district C) and Kathi Roy (district E) are requesting reports on the number of classroom doors without functioning locks for each school in their respective districts and the timeline for replacement. Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen reported on this back at the December 21 meeting during the superintendent’s mid-year goal review.  Allen outlined that the safety audit identified 326 individual classroom and office locksets that are in need of replacement, and the goal is to have locks installed on all those doors by June 30, 2024. Since the audit, the WPD and WFD have both approved the locksets that will be the standard for WPS moving forward. A part of the Superintendent’s goals this year is “100% completion of highest priority emergency projects identified in the safety audit” and this includes door locks. So the completion of the installation of the door locks is something that will be part of her evaluation at the end of the school year in June.

A bunch of funding report requests:

• Member Mailman requests a report on after school program funding sources and funding models. 

• Member Biancheria requests a report on J-ROTC and its budget.

• Member Maureen Binienda (at-large) requests reports on:

  • 1/5 teachers and their cost per school

  • 10 years of data on the amount of funding per school for credit buyback

  • funding for CPR training for health and PE teachers

  • the number of schools with water filling stations and cost to provide them to all schools (the district has used a SWIG grant as well as ESSER funds to install these in schools recently)

Member Molly McCullough (district A) is requesting a presentation on the modern classroom project.

Member Sue Mailman (at-large) is requesting a report with five years of enrollment data broken down by quadrant, grade, school, and class size as well as the last time schools were “redistributed.” (check out Understanding Neighborhood Schools if you haven't already!)

That’s it, have a lovely week!  If you have feedback you can always get in touch: wpsinbrief@substack.com